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Monday, January 12, 2015

LISTEN UP LEGISLATORS: People Want Better Sex Education Than What Many States Require

Posted: 01/09/2015 7:32 am EST Updated: 01/09/2015 7:59 am EST :: A majority of U.S. states don't mandate sex education, even though two-thirds of Americans think students should get comprehensive birth control information at school.

A Huffington Post poll in collaboration with YouGov revealed that most Americans -- both Democratic and Republican -- think school sex education classes should include information about various forms of contraception, instead of just abstinence. The poll of a nationally representative sample of about 1,000 adults was conducted in late December and early January:

Twenty-two percent of poll participants who identify as Republican said they think teenagers should only be taught about abstinence, compared with 9 percent of participants who identify as Democrats. At the same time, 59 percent of Republicans said they think teenagers should be taught about various methods of birth control. Whites were somewhat more likely than minorities to support comprehensive sex ed. Those who currently have children under the age of 18 were almost twice as likely to say that teenagers should only be taught abstinence.

The poll found that 66 percent of respondents said they think sex education with information about various forms of contraception is more effective at reducing teen pregnancies than courses providing information on abstinence. This was especially true for respondents who identified as atheists or agnostics. Zero percent of this group reported thinking that courses stressing abstinence would reduce teen pregnancies, compared with 24 percent of Protestants and 19 percent of Catholics.

State requirements on sex education don't seem to match the sentiments of most survey participants. Below are two maps showing state laws on sex education as of Jan. 1, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research organization that focuses on reproductive health. The first map shows that many states (shown in red) do not require sex education to be taught in schools. The second shows that sex education courses in many states must provide information on abstinence, but not contraception.

The HuffPost/YouGov poll was conducted Dec. 30-Jan. 2 among 1,000 U.S. adults using a sample selected from YouGov's opt-in online panel to match the demographics and other characteristics of the adult U.S. population. Factors considered include age, race, gender, education, employment, income, marital status, number of children, voter registration, time and location of Internet access, interest in politics, religion and church attendance.